steamboat captain. Then they all laughed and pa said:
"There's a story about that that I'll tell you, judge." Then I blushed
and Myrtle giggled and ma looked mad, because she was really ashamed of
me.

And finally the court opened. I went up to see what it was like. There
sat the judge on a high seat. And different lawyers would get up and
say, "Docket number 8020" or somethin'. And the judge would turn over
the leaves of a book and say, "Kelly _vs._ Graves," or somethin' and
wait. Then the lawyer would say, "Default of Nora Kennedy" or somethin'.
Then the judge would write, and so on. And my pa acted as if he didn't
know the judge at all. He always said "your honor," and the judge didn't
call him Hardy like he did at our house, but always Mr. Kirby. Nobody
could tell they knew each other.

The town was chuck full of people. Watermelon rinds was all over the
court house yard and there was lots of fights and men gettin' drunk; and
after a few days, the court room was full of people watchin' the court
proceedings. It was lots better than a theater, though not so good as a
circus. I got hold of Mitch finally and he came and sat with me. He got
interested after a while, and whatever he got interested in, he watched
and liked better than anybody. But one day when we was there my pa got
up and told the judge he was ready to try Temple Scott for killin' Joe
Rainey. Then a little man, wearin' nose glasses, awful cunnin' lookin',
with a soft voice, which he could make deep when he wanted to, said he
was ready. He was Major Abbott, Temple Scott's lawyer. And so the case
started.

It went on several days with lots of witnesses testifyin'--all the
people who practiced "Pinafore" that night told about hearing the shots.
And this little lawyer whose name was Major Abbott, as I said, asked
every one, "How many shots did you hear?" Most of 'em said two; but some
said they couldn't remember; and he made some of 'em say they heard
three shots. They had found two bullets in Joe Rainey, and the point
seemed to be that the other shot was fired by Joe Rainey; for pa said to
me one day when we was walkin' home at noon that the defense was that
Joe Rainey fired at Temple Scott first.

[Illustration: Major Abbott]

Then Major Abbott cross-questioned the witnesses about whether they saw
Joe Rainey come into the house and go out just before he was killed. And
most of 'em said yes. And then he tried to get 'em to say that they saw
Joe Rainey